[Billthedrill]

Thank you for joining today to so inform us. These are, in fact, about 10 years old and they are most definitely WMD. Blister agents are chemical agents - they had them and we (and every other intelligence agency on the planet) knew perfectly well they had them because they'd used them in the past.

The question is, where are the rest? A chemical warfare program doesn't produce 200 mortar shells and then quit.

But your point is quite right - this will only result in an endless raising of the bar - this find wasn't enough, that find won't be enough, no find will be in the final event. But you know something? It will.

[John H K]

These are, in fact, about 10 years old

The age is very unclear, and none of the stories I've seen have it as EXACTLY 10 years old.

I believe the general thrust was that they were at LEAST 10 years old.

Anyway, anyone who believes 120mm mortar shells buried in this small a quantity for that long in the condition they are in was part of a grand devious plan to evade inspectors and then use them later is seriously delusional.

[Bedford Forrest]

Blister agents are chemical agents - they had them and we (and every other intelligence agency on the planet) knew perfectly well they had them because they'd used them in the past.

Who started using the term "blister agent", which sounds about as lethal as sunscreen? Why didn't our military people begin by referring to these WMDs as "mustard gas", which term has been around a long time, is more widely understood and has far more powerful connotations. And if the media scum persist in treating the discovery of these mustard gas munitions like a church social, then we should take a dozen or so of them, strip them down to their skivvies and give them a light misting with the stuff. After a week they will be singing a different tune about "blister agent", aka mustard gas.

[SauronOfMordor]

A few blister-gas shells are not going to impress most people in the US. The point of going after somebody with WMD is that we don't want unstable dictators having weapons that are a threat to people in the continental US. Nukes, yes. Biologicals, definitely yes. Large amounts of VX-type nerve gas, probably. Mortar shells that are mainly useful in a battlefield environment -- ehhh.